A little more than two weeks after four Georgia lawmakers called on Governor Brian Kemp and Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan to convene a special legislative session to address matters from the November 3 General Election, the two have released an official statement.
Governor Kemp and Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan issued the following joint statement Sunday evening:
“While we understand four members of the Georgia Senate are requesting the convening of a special session of the General Assembly, doing this in order to select a separate slate of presidential electors is not an option that is allowed under state or federal law.
“State law is clear: the legislature could only direct an alternative method for choosing presidential electors if the election was not able to be held on the date set by federal law. In the 1960s, the General Assembly decided that Georgia’s presidential electors will be determined by the winner of the state’s popular vote. Any attempt by the legislature to retroactively change that process for the November 3rd election would be unconstitutional and immediately enjoined by the courts, resulting in a long legal dispute and no short-term resolution.
“The judicial system remains the only viable – and quickest – option in disputing the results of the November 3rd election in Georgia.”
Sen. Greg Dolezal (R – Cumming), Sen. William Ligon (R – Brunswick), Sen. Brandon Beach (R – Alpharetta) and Sen. Burt Jones (R – Jackson) called for the special convention before the Thanksgiving holiday. While a number of state representatives have also called on state officials to act, Kemp and Duncan did not address them specifically. Under Georgia law, the General Assembly can convene on its own without a call by the Governor with 3/5th of the House body agreeing, but lawmakers do not currently have the votes.
By order of the Constitution, the General Assembly will convene for the regular legislative session on the second Monday in January in 2021.
Adam
December 10, 2020 at 2:39 pm
Hi Jessica, thank you for your work on GA politics.
Gucci Geoff and Coward Kemp don’t have their facts straight. The US Constitution grants the power of selecting electors to the state legislatures. They have passed this duty on to the people for a simple majority. They can take back their power to send a slate of electors that they see fit for any reason–in this case, no-confidence in the election being conducted by law. Don’t you wonder if Geoff was a real conservative would he be running to CNN everyday in his Armani suit? The emperor has no clothes.
Don
December 12, 2020 at 7:35 pm
Our governor can be described with one word: WEAK. He does not fight for transparency. We Georgian could take the results of the election if there was some semblance of transparency. Why not fight for the audit of the dominion software? Why was there no signature verification of the mail in ballots? Why was the ACLU hired to work our election? Why was the vote counting stopped at State Farm Arena over a fraudulent pipe burst? SHOW US! Don’t tell us because you have lost our trust. Something doesn’t pass the smell test. The people Brian Kemp has totally abandoned are the people that voted for him. Sadly I voted for him. We thought we were electing a strong leader that would fight for truth. A strong leader would have taken the led day one after the election to show us everything was on the up and up. Could you imagine the founding fathers of our country showing such weakness? We wouldn’t have a country . Prediction: Brian Kemp will not run for a second term. He couldn’t get elected dog catcher of Butts County.